Inspiration Friday Party No. 16!

Welcome friends!

I'm so thrilled to have you join me for this last Inspiration Friday Party before Christmas.

But, we can't officially get things going until I announce the winner of last week's Giveaway!

Random Generator spit out the winning number and it belonged to........

Honey from 2805!

She will be receiving the oversized 12 Days of Christmas Towel, her very own Mint Julep cup and a copy of "Reflections of a Mississippi Magnolia.
There may even be an extra surprise tucked in there!

Congratulations Honey and I'm so thrilled that you have joined the ranks of Bloggers this year. It is quite a great little community we have, isn't it?

Earlier this month I began the tour of my home all dressed up for Christmas by showing you our main Christmas tree, a.k.a. "Mommy's Tree". As in, "you have your own tree and mommy spent a lot of time on this one so don't you dare go rearranging things!"

 I told you all about my treasured ornaments and the Angel my husband I bought as Newlyweds.
But there was one ornament you didn't see.
Because it hangs on the back of that tree.
And I'm a poet who already knows it.

Ahem...got off track there for a second.

This ornament could be considered the "Ugly Duckling" of my collection.
Can you see why?

It probably came in a pack of 20 from Wal-Mart and wouldn't be considered very valuable by most.

That is, if you don't know what it holds inside.

Can you see that?

That little slip of paper peeking out?

At a church retreat in the fall of 2002, we were given these little ball ornaments and tiny slips of paper, and instructed to write down what we were hoping and praying for that year.

Robb and I knew, of course, what we were hoping and praying for. We had been for some time.

I'm only going to let you see a little bit of what it says.

"We are more confident and assured that God is making plans for our child to come into our lives in the next year."

We rolled it up and tucked it back inside that cheap ball ornament and when we got home it got packed away.
Flash forward 5 months and we found ourselves adopting the most precious boy we could have imagined.
Actually, he was (and is) far beyond what we hoped and prayed for!
When I got out the ornaments that year to hang on our tree, I found this one and couldn't really remember what it was for. Maybe it was from the fog of sleep deprivation I was in!

I almost tossed it out until I noticed the "2002" written on it.
Pulling out that little scroll of paper I read the words that came from our hearts just 1 year earlier. And looking down at my sleeping baby boy, I marveled that the God of the universe would answer the prayers of an ordinary young couple longing for a child to call their own. And then, just to show off, He orchestrated the adoption of our beautiful daughter 4 years later!


And, just because it's my blog and I get to do whatever I want here, I couldn't resist showing you just how much God has blessed us by sharing these 2 recent pics of my sweet babies who are getting way too big for their britches if you ask me!

(These were taken by an AMAZING local photographer and I'll show you some more next week)
So, what are you hoping and praying for?
Maybe you would consider writing it down, tucking it inside of one of your cheapy ball ornaments (or a beautiful, expensive one if that's the way you roll!) and hanging it on your tree.
Who knows? Maybe the next time you see it that prayer will have been answered!

Now, this would typically be the point at which I would begin to high-light some fabulous posts from last week's party.
But, to be honest with you, there is so much great stuff in blogland right now with the Holiday Extravaganza going on that I couldn't narrow it down to only 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or...you get the idea!

So, consider yourselves ALL HIGH-LIGHTED this week!
Think of it as my gift to you!

And, do you want to give me a gift? Well, I don't know about you, but time is not on my side these days. And it would be such a gift to me if you all would take the time and visit the 2 links before and the 2 links after yours. Maybe even leave them a comment?
I try my darndest to get around to everyone but I don't know that it will happen this week. I'll do my best, but you all could be a great help to me in that department so that everyone can get a little bit of linky party love!

Now, let the Merriment Begin!
Here is how to link up...

1. Add your Permalink to your entry but not your General Blog Address. To get your Permalink, click on the title of the blog post you are wanting to submit and copy and paste the address into the URL box. You will also have to add your address but it will not be visible to anyone else.
2. Do not try and Link up until you have actually published that particular post on your blog.
3. Please link back to the host blog, Southern In My Heart, so that those who visit your blog will be able to find some wonderful Inspiration from everyone else.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend preparing for the week of celebration ahead! I'm off to my son's School Christmas Program. That should be good for some chuckles and maybe even a few tears!

From this Southern Girl at Heart,
Vanessa
I'm linking this post to
Tuesday Treasures